


Things Could Be Worse

by google_teef



Category: The 39 Clues - Various Authors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 17:37:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13956648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/google_teef/pseuds/google_teef
Summary: Raising children isn't easy by any stretch, especially with children like Olivia's. But her perpetual frustration and sleep deprivation are worth it, because she loves them. She really does. More than anything else in the world.





	Things Could Be Worse

**Author's Note:**

> So this fic assumes you've read Vespers Rising (which if you haven't you def should.)

When Luke was born, Olivia Cahill was pretty damn tired. Luke was not, by any definition of the phrase, an easy baby. He would cry quite often, with a particular affinity for the earliest hours of the morning. Gideon was helpful, of course, but he was busy with his work as always and Olivia hated to deprive him of the sleep he already got so little of. To top it off, the wee lad didn’t even seem to like her very much.  
“Come on Luke, it’s your mummy,” she whined as she tried to rock him back to sleep one night, his tomato-red face screaming with a sourceless agony. In her tired daze, she didn’t hear her husband come into the room.  
“I gotcha Lukie,” Gideon whispered as he picked up the little boy. Olivia tried to protest- Gideon had much more important things to do.  
“Gideon… plague research… I can handle…” She muttered sleepily. Gideon didn’t listen. He gently bounced baby Luke up and down for a few moments until his cries quieted to whimpers, and then disappeared altogether. She heard the careful footsteps as Gideon tiptoed over to the crib, avoiding the creakier floorboards that came with a house as old as theirs. He laid the sleeping baby down, covered him with a blanket, and then made his way over to the bed. He sat down next to Olivia and kissed the top of her hair, soft and loving. Her life might not be easy, but she had little Luke and she had her Gideon, so things could never really be that bad, could they?  
—  
When Katherine was born, Olivia Cahill was really tired. The little girl had taken to making little hand signals when she was hungry, tired, or needed a change. This was a welcome idea after the constant puzzle that had been calming Luke. The only issue was that Olivia could not, for the life of her, figure them out.  
One unfortunate afternoon, Katherine was bawling her little head off. She kept making a little gesture with her fist, hitting it against the side of her chubby hand. Completely clueless, Olivia attempted to pick her up and burp her. Katherine emitted a cry so loud and unholy, Olivia wondered is she’d ever hear anything again. Wincing, she sat the baby back down gingerly. Okay, Katherine. She thought. Food?  
She was just about to reach for the mashed peas when a shrill voice raised from behind her.  
“She isn’t hungry.” said her eight year old son. Olivia took a deep breath. It was difficult enough to deal with a baby. It was a whole nother story to have to tame Katherine’s crying and Luke’s incessant nagging.  
“Oh isn’t she now?” Olivia responded with a bit more snark than she’d care to admit. “And what makes ya say that?” she asked the boy.  
Luke scoffed and Olivia had to restrain herself so not to throttle him. “That’s her changin’ sign, that there.” Olivia rolled her eyes.  
“Who here’s her mother, eh?” she asked as she attempted to feed the little girl once again. Just then, her husband came around from behind her.  
“‘At’s her changin’ sign dear.” he said. Olivia turned around with a sigh.  
“Gideon, you stop your very important work just to correct your wife.” she criticized, but her tone was free of any spite. She smiled at her husband, as Gideon pecked her on the cheek.  
“Ugh,” Luke grumbled. Gideon grabbed his son by his shoulder before he could slink out of the room and pulled him into a group hug. He struggled, but Olivia could tell he was smiling.  
—  
When Thomas was born, Olivia was exhausted. He was surprisingly heavy for a baby of only a few months, and Olivia’s arms were literally always sore. She had, at this point, given up on trying to keep Gideon from intervening and taking breaks from his plague research. His help was completely welcome, as they had a two year old toddler to take care of as well as the abnormally large baby boy. Thomas had a particular affinity for small, fragile toys, which became an issue as he broke every one he played with. Katherine was already teaching herself to read, which Olivia found remarkable as she was only beginning to learn herself. It irritated Luke how quickly she was learning, because he had really struggled with it when he had been.  
“Hey mum?” Luke came into her room early one morning, not noticing the sleeping baby on her lap. Olivia bugged her eyes, trying to communicate her panic to the child. Luke continued, blissfully unaware.  
“Have you seen Katherine’s book, ‘cos she won’t quit screamin’ an-” in her lap, Thomas shifted his oversized body ever so slightly. Olivia cursed under her breath as she watched his little eyes squint, and his face scrunch up in a tiny baby scowl. Suddenly, a blood curdling scream pierced the air. Luke’s bored gaze turned to terror in a millisecond, and he frantically ran towards his mother.  
“Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry…” Luke muttered as he tried to calm the wailing child. Olivia looked at him with a gaze that encompassed somehow her complete exasperation and pure pride.  
“He doesn’t like me much, but I can… erm… bounce ‘im?” Olivia chucked as she watched the slim figured boy pick up the burly baby. Luke’s skinny arms strained a bit, but he managed to bounce the child up and down a few times. Thomas’s crying did not soften for a second, and Luke’s pinched expression grew even more anxious.  
“GIDEON!” Olivia called. As adorable as Luke’s attempts were, they were not helping to calm down the baby. She heard heavy footsteps running towards her room, and the door burst open to reveal her weary-eyed husband.  
“Whadissit?” he asked, his words slurred with exhaustion. He looked over at his ten year old son worriedly bobbing up and down, trying to calm the baby and the stress around his eyes softened a bit. Gideon strolled over to Luke and picked up the wriggling baby, shushing him softly as he rocked back and forth. Thomas calmed and as his howls subsided, Olivia allowed herself to close her eyes. She could hear as little Katherine waddled into the room on wobbly legs and plopped down next to her older brother. Olivia Cahill smiled.  
—  
When Jane was born, Olivia was done. The sheer amount of children in the house was overwhelming, even if Luke and Katherine were old enough not to need constant supervision.  
The problem with leaving them alone was that when alone, Katherine took things apart. She had deconstructed anything in the house that could be broken down into parts. It got to the point where Olivia had to tell Luke that he wasn’t allowed to leave her sister’s side. This was, of course, the last thing either of them wanted. With all the complaining, Thomas already beginning to stumble around the house, and of course the newborn baby, neither Olivia nor her husband ever got a second of rest.  
“MUM!” came an ear piercing shriek from the kitchen one evening. Olivia sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to quell her ever-present headache, and marched toward the noise.  
“What is it,” she asked her older children impatiently. Katherine’s chubby little face was bright red. She pointed her finger accusingly at the older boy.  
“Luke was tryin’ ta sneak off!” she whined. Luke snapped his head around to glare at her.  
“Was not.”  
“Were too!”  
Olivia sighed.  
“Luke, it’s too late for you to go anywhere. Come into the living room, we need help with the baby.”  
“Me?” he asked incredulously. Olivia rolled her eyes.  
“Well Katherine can’t very well do much now, can she?”  
Katherine piped up. “Hey! I’m very capable.”  
Luke scoffed. “Please. You weigh about as much as a wet cat.”  
“Perfect! So we agree. Come on now, Luke,” Olivia said with a smirk. The boy scowled, realizing he’d been tricked, but he trudged along beside his mother.  
In the living room, Gideon was sitting in his chair, struggling to put little shoes on Thomas’s kicking feet. Olivia chuckled at the sight. She walked over to Jane in her crib and picked her up gently. She cooed at her before placing her gingerly in Luke’s arms. Luke rolled his eyes. As Olivia went over to help Gideon with the toddler, Luke began bouncing her gently. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard him start to softly hum.  
A while later, Olivia decided it was time they all head to bed. She hesitated, however, when she saw little Jane sleeping soundly in her brother’s arms. Jane was a finicky baby who didn’t sleep easily, and this was the fastest she’d been put to bed in the months since she’d been born. Olivia locked eyes with Luke.  
“It’s okay Mum. You go on to bed. I got her,” he said with a gentleness she so rarely saw in him that Olivia ignored her better judgement and decided to do as he’d said. As she curled up in bed, she whispered to Gideon.  
“Did you see Luke back there with the baby?”  
“Yeah. He’s growin’ up nice,” Gideon responded softly  
Olivia smiled at him, and although it was dark, she could tell he was smiling too.  
—  
When Madeleine was born, Olivia Cahill was not tired. She had no reason to be. Though she’d been living in the little house for months now, she still couldn’t quite get used to it. It was quiet. Madeleine was a very easy baby, surprising, after her siblings had been so difficult. She could see them, though. In the little things she did. Madeleine’s eyes were the same lovely soft brown as Thomas’s, and when she laughed, all she could hear was Jane. The way she looked at things evoked a Katherine-like wonder, and on the odd occasion she did cry, the sadness reminded her of Luke.  
Every once in a while, she’d think about Gideon. She tried to prevent this whenever she could, simply because it hurt her so to think of his kind wrinkles around his eyes, the way his hair would stick up a bit after a long day’s work, how much he cared about her and their children and humanity as a whole.  
Her children, however, made their way into everything she did. Something would fall apart and she’d think of how if Katherine were here, she’d fix it and come up with some way to ensure it never broke again. She’d need to lift something heavy, and she’s think about how Thomas would surely be more than willing to pick it up for her. She’d look around the bare walls of her little house and think about how if Jane were here, she’d paint the most beautiful murals the world had ever seen. She welcomed these thoughts, because although sad, they reminded her that her children were still out there.  
When she thought of Luke, she thought of the baby boy she had rocked to sleep every night, the little child who had tried so hard to help his mother care for his siblings, the young teenager who had urged her to go to bed, that he could handle it, as he looked lovingly at his baby sister.  
She thought of the broken man with pleading eyes. The come on, we have to get out of the house. The flames reflecting on a sweaty cheek, and his solemn scowl as he walked away and didn’t come back.  
One night she couldn’t hold it in anymore. She closed her eyes and she sobbed. She cried for her husband, who had done so much for the world as a whole that he deserved infinitely more than what he had gotten in the end. She cried for her children, who were out by themselves despite their lack of experience, despite how young and innocent they were. She cried for herself, because she was so, so very alone.  
No. No, that wasn’t true. Olivia had Madeleine. She looked at the baby who was so painfully similar to her other children, and also so painfully different. She smiled sadly at the little girl, and leaned down to kiss her forehead. Before she picked herself back up again, she whispered softly to her daughter.  
“Bring them back to me, Madeleine. I just want them back.” And Olivia hoped to God and any speck of goodness left in the world that Madeleine would.


End file.
